“We’ve Never Seen Such Horror”

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Summary

Map of Daraa Governorate

Since the beginning of anti-government protests in March
2011, Syrian security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and arbitrarily
arrested thousands, subjecting many of them to brutal torture in detention. The
security forces routinely prevented the wounded from getting medical
assistance, and imposed a siege on several towns, depriving the population of
basic services. Some of the worst abuses took place in Daraa governorate in southwestern
Syria.

The nature and scale of abuses, which Human Rights Watch
research indicates were not only systematic, but implemented as part of a state
policy, strongly suggest these abuses qualify as crimes against humanity.

This report focuses primarily on violations by Syrian
security forces in Daraa governorate from March 18 to May 22, 2011. Since the
beginning of the protests in Syria, Human Rights Watch has issued numerous
press releases documenting the crackdown on protesters in different parts of
Syria. Obtaining information from Daraa proved most challenging as Syrian
authorities put enormous efforts into ensuring that such information did not
get out.

The report is based on more than 50 interviews with
residents of Daraa and several Jordanian nationals who were in Daraa during the
protests. Human Rights Watch also reviewed dozens of videos, filmed by the
witnesses, which corroborate their accounts. Additional information was
provided by Syrian activists who have been documenting the events.

The Daraa protests, which eventually spread all over Syria,
were sparked by the detention and torture of 15 young boys accused of painting
graffiti slogans calling for the downfall of the regime. On March 18, following
Friday prayer, several thousand protesters marched from al-Omari Mosque
in Daraa calling for the release of the children and greater political freedom,
and accusing government officials of corruption. Security forces initially used
water cannons and teargas against the protesters and then opened live fire,
killing at least four.

The release of the children—bruised and bloodied after
severe torture in detention—fanned the flames of popular anger. Protests
continued, every week growing bigger with people from towns and villages
outside Daraa city joining the demonstrations.

The Syrian authorities promised to investigate the killings,
but at the same time denied any responsibility and blamed the violence on
“terrorist groups,” “armed gangs,” and “foreign
elements.” In the meantime, security forces responded to the continuing
protests with unprecedented brutality, killing, at this writing, at least 418
people in the governorate of Daraa alone, and more than 887 across Syria. Exact
numbers are impossible to verify given the information blockade imposed by the
Syrian government.

Some of the deadliest incidents that Human Rights Watch has
documented in this report include:

An attack on al-Omari mosque (which had become a rallying
point for protesters and served as a makeshift hospital for the wounded
protesters) and ensuing protests from March 23 to 25, 2011, which resulted
in the killing of more than 30 protesters;

Killings during two protests on April 8, 2011, which
resulted in the deaths of at least 25 victims;

Killings during a protest and a funeral procession in
Izraa on April 22 and 23, 2011, which claimed the lives of at least 34
protesters;

Killings during the siege of Daraa and neighboring
villages (starting on April 25 and ongoing in certain towns) and killings
at an April 29, 2011 protest, during which residents of neighboring towns
tried to break the siege, which claimed up to 200 lives.

Witnesses from Daraa interviewed by Human Rights Watch
provided consistent accounts of security forces using lethal force against
peaceful protesters. In some cases, security forces first used teargas or fired
in the air, but when protesters refused to disperse, they fired live ammunition
from automatic weapons into the crowds. In most cases, especially as
demonstrations in Daraa grew bigger, security forces opened fire without giving
advance warning or making any effort to disperse the protesters by nonlethal
means.

Security forces deliberately targeted protesters, who were,
in the vast majority of cases, unarmed and posed no threat to the forces;
rescuers who were trying to take the wounded and the dead away; medical
personnel trying to reach the wounded; and, during the siege, people who dared
to go out of their houses or to gain access to supplies. In some cases they
also shot bystanders, including women and children.

From the end of March, witnesses consistently reported the
presence of snipers on government buildings near the protests, targeting and
killing protesters. Many of the victims sustained head, neck and chest wounds,
suggesting that they were deliberately targeted.

Other evidence obtained by Human Rights Watch also suggests
that security forces participating in the operations against the protesters (in
Daraa and other cities) had received, at least in a number of cases,
“shoot-to-kill” orders from their commanders.

Security forces who participated in the crackdown in Daraa
included several army units, as well as various branches of Syria’s mukhabarat
(intelligence services). Several witnesses noted that most of the violence was perpetrated
by mukhabarat forces and elite army units such as the 4th Division
which reports directly to Maher al-Asad, the younger brother of President
Bashar al-Asad. On several occasions army units deployed to quell the protests
seemed reluctant to shoot at protesters, allowed them to pass through
checkpoints, and, in at least two cases documented by Human Rights Watch,
refused orders to shoot and either surrendered to the protesters or handed over
their weapons to the protesters.

Syrian authorities repeatedly blamed the protesters in Daraa
for initiating the violence and attacking security forces. On several
occasions, starting in late March, after security forces first used lethal
force against the demonstrators, Daraa residents resorted to violence. For
example, they set several building on fire, including the governor’s
house, and the political security building, as well as vehicles belonging to
the security forces, and on several occasions killed members of the security
forces.

At the same time, all witnesses interviewed by Human Rights
Watch said that the protests started peacefully, with demonstrators often
carrying olive branches, unbuttoning their shirts to show that they had no
weapons, and chanting “peaceful, peaceful” to indicate that they posed
no threat to the security forces. Dozens of videos of the Daraa protests that
witnesses provided to Human Rights Watch as well as those posted online
corroborate these accounts. Witnesses said that protesters only used violence
against the security forces and government property in response to killings by
the security forces or, in some cases, as a last resort to secure the release
of wounded demonstrators captured by the security forces.

The incidents of violence by the protesters should be
further investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. However, these
incidents by no means justify the massive and systematic use of lethal force
against the demonstrators, which was clearly disproportionate to the threat
presented by the overwhelmingly unarmed crowds.

Syrian authorities also routinely denied wounded protesters
access to medical assistance. In at least two cases documented by Human Rights
Watch (and reportedly in many others), this denial of medical assistance led to
the deaths of wounded persons who might otherwise have survived.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that security forces
regularly prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded and, on several
occasions, opened fire as medical personnel were trying to reach the injured.
They also prevented people from carrying away the wounded and, in several cases
documented by Human Rights Watch, shot at and killed the rescuers. Security
forces took control of most of the hospitals in Daraa and detained the wounded
who were brought in. As a result, many wounded avoided the hospitals and were
treated in makeshift hospitals with limited access to proper care.

Since late March, and particularly after Daraa came under
siege on April 25, security forces launched a massive campaign of arrests in the
governorate. Witnesses from Daraa city and neighboring towns described to Human
Rights Watch large-scale sweep operations conducted by security forces who
daily detained hundreds arbitrarily, as well as targeted arrests of activists
and their family members. Some detainees, many of whom were children, were
released several days or weeks later, while others have not reappeared. In most
cases their families have no information on their fate or whereabouts.

The majority, if not all, of the arrests seemed entirely
arbitrary with no formal charges ever brought against the detainees. People
arrested in Daraa were initially held in various ad hoc detention facilities
before being transferred for interrogation in military intelligence or
political security departments in Daraa. Many were then sent to Damascus.

Released detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said
that they, as well as hundreds of others they saw in detention, were subjected
to various forms of torture and degrading treatment. The methods of torture
included prolonged beatings with sticks, twisted wires, and other devices;
electric shocks administered with tasers and electric batons; use of improvised
metal and wooden “racks”; and, in at least one case documented by
Human Rights Watch, the rape of a male detainee with a baton. Interrogators and
guards also subjected detainees to various forms of humiliating treatment, such
as urinating on the detainees, stepping on their faces, and making them kiss
the officers’ shoes. Several detainees said they were repeatedly
threatened with imminent execution.

All of the former detainees described appalling detention
conditions, with grossly overcrowded cells, where at times detainees could only
sleep in turns, and lack of food.

Two witnesses (both former detainees) independently reported
to Human Rights Watch a case of an extrajudicial execution of detainees on May
1, 2011 at an ad hoc detention facility at the football field in Daraa. One of
the two witnesses said the security forces executed 26 detainees; the other one
described a group of “more than 20.”

The majority of witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch
also referred to the existence of mass graves in Daraa. On May 16, Daraa
residents discovered at least seven bodies in one such grave about 1.5
kilometers from Daraa al-Balad. Five bodies were identified as members of the
Abazeid family. Syrian government officials denied the existence of a mass
grave, but al-Watan, a Syrian newspaper closely affiliated with the government,
acknowledged that five bodies had been found.

On April 25, 2011,
Syrian security forces launched a large-scale military operation in Daraa and
imposed a siege which lasted at least 11 days and was then extended to
neighboring towns. Daraa residents told Human Rights Watch that security forces
moved into the city in military vehicles, including numerous tanks and armored
personnel carriers. Under the cover of heavy gunfire they occupied all
neighborhoods in Daraa, imposed checkpoints, and placed snipers on roofs of buildings
in many parts of the city. They prevented any movement of residents in the
streets. The security forces opened fire on those who tried to defy the ban on
movement and gatherings, or simply went out of their homes in search of food or
medication.

Witnesses said that Daraa residents experienced acute
shortages of food, water (because security forces shot and damaged water
tanks), medicine, and other necessary supplies during the siege. Electricity
and all communications were cut off for at least 15 days, and, at the time of
this writing, remained cut off in several neighborhoods in the city.

From April 25, 2011 until at least May 22, 2011, Daraa
residents were not allowed to pray in mosques and all calls for prayer were
banned. Security forces occupied all of the mosques in the city and, according
to witnesses who saw the mosques after they reopened, desecrated them by
writing graffiti on the walls.

As the killings continued during the Daraa siege, residents
also struggled with the growing number of dead bodies. Due to the lack of
electricity, the bodies could not be stored in morgues, and restrictions on
movement and communications placed obstacles to identification and burials. As
a result, Daraa residents stored dozens of bodies in mobile vegetable refrigerators
that could run on diesel fuel. These were subsequently confiscated by the
security forces who then returned at least some of the bodies to the families.

Syrian authorities also imposed an information blockade on
Daraa to ensure that abuses were not exposed. No independent observers could
enter the city and one international journalist who managed to report from
Daraa during the first two weeks of protests in March was arrested upon his
return to Damascus. During the siege all means of communication were shut down,
including Syrian cell phone networks. Many witnesses told Human Rights Watch
that cell phones were the first thing authorities confiscated during searches
in their houses or at checkpoints. They were specifically looking for footage
of the events and arrested and tortured those whom they suspected of trying to
send out images or other information out, including some foreign nationals.

Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian government to
immediately halt the use of excessive and lethal force by security forces
against demonstrators and activists, release unconditionally all detainees held
merely for participating in peaceful protests or for criticizing the Syrian
authorities, and provide immediate and unhindered access to human rights groups
and journalists to the governorate of Daraa, as well as hospitals, places of
detention, and prisons. It also called on the Security Council to push for and
support efforts to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the grave,
widespread, and systematic human rights violations committed in Syria since
mid-March 2011, and adopt targeted financial and travel sanctions on those
officials responsible for continuing human rights violations.

Note on Methodology

This report is based on more than 50 interviews with Daraa
residents and several Jordanian nationals conducted in person and over the
phone in April and May 2011. Dozens of other interviews with witnesses in other
parts of Syria were used for the chapter setting the context of the anti-government
demonstrations in Syria. Additional information was provided by Syrian
activists who have been documenting the events.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed dozens of videos filmed by
the witnesses and interviewed them about the content.

The interviews were conducted by Arabic-speaking researchers
or with the help of Arabic-English translators.

Daraa has been and remains under information blockade and
obtaining information from the governorate is extremely difficult. Those who
speak to foreigners or try to share the information through electronic means
may face severe repercussions, and Human Rights Watch researchers had to
exercise caution while collecting and publicizing the information. To protect
the witnesses, many of the names of witnesses in this report have been changed
or withheld, as well as places where the interviews took place.

In this report Human Rights Watch only used information that
contained sufficient detail and was corroborated by several witnesses
interviewed independently or by video footage filmed by the same witnesses
Human Rights Watch interviewed. We excluded dozens of other accounts and
allegations which we could not verify.

Human Rights Watch compiled the list of people who had been
killed during protests based on information provided by local activists. While
we did our best to verify the names and circumstances of the killings with
witnesses and family members, this was not always possible due to restrictions
on access and communications in Syria.

I. Timeline of Protest and Repression in Syria

Syria, a repressive police state ruled under an emergency
law since 1963, at first seemed immune to the popular uprisings that swept the
Arab world starting December 2010. Protests began in February, but failed to
attract crowds large enough to outnumber the ever present security forces.

The situation changed in mid-March, when thousands of people
took part in anti-government demonstrations in the city of Daraa, located in
the southern Hauran region near the Jordanian border.[1]Protests broke out on March 18 in response to the arrest and torture by
political security, a branch of Syria’s notorious mukhabarat, or
security services, of 15 school children (see below). Security forces opened
fire, killing at least four protesters and within days the protests grew into
rallies that gathered thousands of people.

On March 19 the state news agency Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
reported that the Ministry of the Interior would form a committee to
investigate the “unfortunate incidents” in Daraa, and would respond
with “all measures deemed necessary” after the committee's
investigation.[2]
On March 20, the government sent a delegation of high-ranking officials to
Daraa, including General Rustum Ghazali, a leading figure in Syrian security
services, stating they would try to assure tribal leaders that those who had
opened fire on protesters would be brought to justice.[3]

Yet, as the protests continued over the following days and
spread to nearby towns of Jassem, Da`el, Sanamein, and Inkhil, the security
forces demonstrated increasing brutality in their efforts to quell the
demonstrations, killing and wounding more and more protesters (see
below).

The Syrian government-controlled media denied the security
forces’ role in the violence, blaming it on “instigators,”
“armed gangs,” and “foreign elements.”[4]As the death toll mounted in Daraa, protests spread across Syria. On
March 26, protesters and security forces clashed in the port city of Latakia in
northwestern Syria, resulting in at least 12 deaths.[5]

On March 30, President Bashar al-Asad addressed the nation.
Speaking before parliament, al-Asad pledged to enact ill-defined
“reforms,” but did not provide any specific details and continued
to blame the unrest on foreign conspirators.[6] The next day, he
launched a probe into deaths in Daraa and Latakia and established a committee
to study the lifting of emergency law. However, in what would become a familiar
pattern, reform promises by President al-Asad were accompanied by more
repression, as security forces carried out mass arrests of activists and
journalists, including two journalists working for Reuters international news
agency.[7]

On April 1, a Friday, protesters turned out by the thousands
in several towns and cities including the capital, Damascus. At least
eight demonstrators and possibly as many as fifteen were killed that day when
men dressed in civilian clothes opened fire at a largely peaceful
anti-government protest in the Damascus suburb of Douma.[8]
Meanwhile in Daraa, people from neighboring villages attempted to enter the city,
but were met with heavy fire at military blockades, especially on the roads
from Sanamein and Inkhil.

This was the first of what became weekly mass
anti-government demonstrations across Syria.[9] The following week,
on April 8, protests continued in Daraa, Baniyas, Homs, Latakia, Tartus, Idlib,
the Damascus suburb of Harasta, and the largely Kurdish northeastern city of
Qamishli. In Daraa, residents of neighboring villages passed through the
blockades at the city's entrances, burned posters and statues of Syria’s
leaders, and converged on the offices of political security. Security forces
opened fire on the protesters, killing at least 27 people. Another protester
died in Douma. Human Rights Watch documented that Syrian security forces
prevented medical personnel and others from reaching wounded protesters that
day in Douma and in Harasta.[10]

On April 15, thousands of protesters tried to enter Damascus
from Douma and other outlying suburbs, but security personnel fired on them and
forced them back.

In addition to shooting protesters, security forces
continued their campaign of mass arrests, arbitrarily detaining hundreds of
protesters across the country, and subjecting them to torture and
ill-treatment. The security and intelligence services also arrested lawyers,
activists, and journalists who endorsed or reported on the protests.

By April 15, Human Rights Watch had interviewed 19 people
who had been detained in Daraa, Damascus, Douma, al-Tal, Homs, and Banyas. All
but two of the detainees arrested during the protests told Human Rights Watch
that members of the mukhabarat (security services) beat them while
arresting them and in detention, and that they witnessed dozens of other
detainees being beaten or heard screams of people being beaten. Three of the
victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch were children who reported that they
were beaten. Other former detainees also reported seeing children detained and
beaten in the facilities where they were held.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that they and other
detainees were subjected to various forms of torture, including torture with
electro-shock devices, cables, and whips. Most also said they were held in
overcrowded cells and many said they were deprived of sleep, food, and water,
in some cases, for several days. Some said they were blindfolded and handcuffed
the entire time.[11]

On April 21, President al-Asad issued decrees to lift the
state of emergency (decree no. 161), to abolish the state security court
(decree no. 53), and to recognize and regulate the right to peaceful protest
(decree no. 54).[12]

But government forces continued to violently suppress
protests, killing at least 110 other protesters who participated in mass
gatherings across the country on April 22, in what was the deadliest day of
protests. Those killed included at least 30 in the town of Izraa, 23 in the
Homs area, and 29 in the Damascus area. Three boys, aged 7, 10, and 12, were
among those killed in Izraa, as was a 70-year-old man. Video footage posted on
YouTube shows a number of the wounded and killed protesters, including one of
the dead children, right after they came under heavy gunfire.[13]

The next day, on April 23, security forces fired on funeral
processions in Barza, Douma, and Izraa, killing at least 12 mourners.

As protests continued, security forces launched large-scale
military operations on towns and neighborhoods identified as hubs of protests.
On April 25, security forces and military vehicles moved into the city of Daraa
using military vehicles, including numerous tanks and armored personnel
carriers (APCs), under a cover of heavy gunfire that lasted unabated for about
16 hours (see below for more details). The security forces occupied all
neighborhoods in Daraa, imposed checkpoints, and placed snipers on the roofs of
buildings in many parts of the city. They imposed a siege on the city, cut off
electricity and all means of communications, and prevented any movement by
opening fire on anyone who tried to leave their house. Once they had
established full control of the city, the security forces then proceeded to
arrest hundreds of men from their homes (see below).

This pattern would be repeated in a number of places, with
varying degrees of military involvement. Security forces surrounded Douma, a
suburb of Damascus that was the scene of large anti-government protests, in the
early hours of April 25, deployed a heavy security presence in each
neighborhood, set-up checkpoints, and proceeded to raid homes, arresting dozens
of men.[14]
On May 1, the army surrounded Zabadani, a town of approximately 40,000
residents near Damascus, a day after thousands of protesters had marched to the
neighboring town of Madaya. The army posted snipers on rooftops and proceeded
to arrest many of those who had participated in anti-government protests. A
Zabadani activist told Human Rights Watch that the security forces detained 98
men from the town that day, releasing 28 of them on May 3. Most of those
released reported being beaten during detention at a security facility on
Baghdad Street in Damascus.[15]

On May 6, the army and the security services, using
armored vehicles and tanks, surrounded the coastal town of Banyas and the
neighborhoods of Bab al-Sba` and Baba Amr in Homs, Syria’s third largest
city. A Banyas resident said that the army used 57 armored vehicles to surround
the town, and entered under cover of heavy gunfire. Over the next few days the
security forces would detain hundreds of boys and men from Banyas.[16]
In the early hours of May 7, the security forces stormed the Baba Amr
neighborhood in Homs, destroying a number of shops and homes, and killing
several residents, including a mother and her two children, local activists
reported.

By May 12, army and security forces had deployed military
vehicles, including tanks, in Da`al, Tafas, Inkhil, al-Hara, and Jasem, all
towns neighboring Daraa, and proceeded to carry out mass arbitrary arrests of
suspected protesters. On May 19, the army also entered the nearby towns of
Sanamain, al-Harak, and Kfar Shams.

Meanwhile the arrest and intimidation of political and human
rights activists continued.[17]
For example, on May 12, security forces in Homs detained Muhammad Najati
Tayyara, a prominent human rights activist who frequently appeared in the media
to provide information on Syria's crackdown on protests. Security forces picked
him up off the streets of Homs, a friend of Tayyara told Human Rights Watch,
and have not provided any information on his whereabouts since then.

In some cases the
security forces resorted to detaining relatives and neighbors of government
critics, in an effort to obtain information on their whereabouts or force them
to stop their activism. For example, on May 11, security forces detained Wael
Hamadeh, a political activist and husband of prominent rights advocate Razan
Zeitouneh, from his office. The security forces had gone to the couple's house
on April 30 searching for them but detained instead Hamadeh's younger brother
Abdel Rahman, 20, when they could not find them.[18]

As this report went to print on May 31, Syrian protesters
were still demonstrating and security forces continued their violent crackdown.
On May 25, security forces returned the body of 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khatib
to his family in Jeeza, near Daraa, bearing what appeared to be signs of
torture. He had been injured and detained weeks earlier while attempting to
bring food to Daraa.[19]
His death and reported torture rallied protesters across Syria on Friday May
27.[20]
The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria reported that security
forces shot and killed 11 protesters that day, including a 15-year-old child in
Idlib.[21]

Security forces killed five people on May 28 in Da`el, near
Daraa, and conducted raids in the nearby town of al-Harek, arresting hundreds
of young men.[22]
At dawn on May 29, military forces with tanks stormed the Homs-area towns of
Rastan, Talbiseh, Deir Ba`albeh, and Teir Ma`alleh, shelling and firing machine
guns at homes and residents, killing 11 people, according to human rights
lawyer Razan Zeitouneh.[23]

II. Crimes against Humanity and Other Violations in
Daraa

Situated in the southwestern part of the country on the
border with Jordan, Daraa is one of fourteen Syrian governorates or provinces.
With less than a million people, it is divided into three districts,
al-Sanamayn, Daraa, and Izraa. The provincial capital, also called Daraa, has a
population of about 80,000.

It was in Daraa that the anti-government protests that have
spread all over Syria since mid-March started. Initial protests were sparked by
the detention and torture of 15 boys, ages 10 to 15, accused of painting
graffiti slogans calling for the downfall of the regime. For days, the
boys’ families pleaded for their release with the authorities and with
General Atef Najeeb who was in charge of the local political security
department in Daraa where the boys were held. Then the residents of Daraa took
to the streets.

On March 18, following the Friday prayer, several thousand
protesters marched from al-Omari Mosque in Daraa calling for the release of the
children and greater political freedom, and accusing government officials of
corruption. According to multiple witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch,
security forces at first attempted to beat the protesters back with stones and
batons. Later riot police were deployed with water cannons and teargas, and
finally members of political security branch of the mukhabarat or
security services showed up and opened fire on demonstrators using live
ammunition. [24]At least four protesters were killed that first day, and several dozen
injured.

The release of the children—bruised and bloodied after
what they described as severe torture in detention—fanned the flames of
popular anger. Protests continued, every day growing bigger, joined by people
from towns and villages outside Daraa city.

Security forces responded to the protests with increasing
brutality. As this report describes in detail, they have systematically opened
fire on overwhelmingly peaceful crowds during demonstrations and funeral
processions, killing, at this writing, at least 418 people in the governorate
of Daraa alone, and wounding hundreds more. The security forces routinely
prevented the wounded from getting medical assistance in a number of instances,
and subjected thousands of people to arbitrary arrests and brutal torture in
detention. When none of these measures succeeded in quelling the protests,
Syrian authorities launched a large-scale military operation in Daraa at the
end of April, put the city under military control, and imposed a siege on the
city, preventing movement not only in and out of the city but also within it,
and depriving the residents of basic services. Later the security forces
extended these siege tactics to nearby towns.

Human Rights Watch believes that the nature and scale of
abuses committed by the Syrian security forces, the similarities in the
apparent unlawful killings and other crimes, and evidence of direct orders
given to security forces to ‘shoot-to-kill’ protestors, strongly
suggest these abuses qualify as crimes against humanity.

Under customary international law and the Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court, crimes against humanity are certain acts,
including murder, torture, and other inhumane acts, committed as part of a
widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.[25]

Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can also be
committed during times of peace, if they are part of a widespread or systematic
attack against a civilian population.[26]

The Rome Statute defines an “attack against a civilian
population” as “a course of conduct involving the multiple
commission of [acts such as murder or other possible crimes against humanity]
against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or
organizational policy to commit such attack.”[27]

For individuals to be found culpable of crimes against
humanity, they must have had knowledge of the crime.[28]
That is, perpetrators must have been aware that their actions formed part of
the widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population.[29]
While perpetrators need not be identified with a policy or plan underlying
crimes against humanity, they must at least have knowingly taken the risk of
participating in the policy or plan.[30]

Individuals accused of crimes against humanity cannot avail
themselves of the defense of following superior orders.[31]
At the same time, those in a position of military or other command can be held
criminal responsible for failing to prevent crimes against humanity by those
under their command, or to submit the matter for prosecution when they knew or
should have known about the crimes.[32]
Because crimes against humanity are considered crimes of universal
jurisdiction, all states are responsible for bringing to justice those who
commit crimes against humanity. There is an emerging trend in international
jurisprudence and standard setting that persons responsible for crimes against
humanity, as well as other serious violations of human rights, should not be granted
amnesty.

Evidence collected by Human Rights Watch also suggests that
Syrian security forces have been responsible for a wide range of other
violations, including extrajudicial executions, massive arbitrary arrests,
denial of medical assistance to the wounded, and imposing a siege which
deprived a civilian population of basic services. Applicable legal standards
are discussed in the sections below.

Systematic killings of protestors and bystanders

Human Rights Watch’s research has established that since
March 18, 2011 and to this writing Syrian security forces have committed
systematic killings in Daraa governorate. They deliberately targeted
protesters, who were in the vast majority of cases unarmed and posed no threat
to the forces; rescuers who were trying to take the wounded and the bodies
away; medical personnel trying to reach the wounded; and, during the siege,
people who dared to go out of their houses or to enter the city with supplies.
In some cases, they also shot bystanders, including women and children.

While witness testimonies leave little doubt regarding the
extent and systematic nature of abuses, the exact number of people killed and
injured by Syrian security forces in Daraa is impossible to verify. The city
remains largely cut off from the outside world and people who try to get
information out face severe repercussions (see below). Thousands of families,
according to local residents, have no information about their missing relatives
and do not know whether relatives have been arrested or killed.

Local activists have been maintaining lists of people killed
during the protests throughout Syria. Human Rights Watch compiled its own list
after checking two separate lists that different local activists provided. As
of May 29, the listed stood at 887 killed and included the names of at least 418
residents of Daraa governorate.

More than 50 witnesses from Daraa interviewed by Human
Rights Watch provided consistent accounts of security forces using lethal force
against protesters during demonstrations, funeral processions, and when people
from surrounding villages tried to enter the city to join the demonstrations or
participate in the funerals of those killed. In some cases, security forces
first used teargas or fired in the air, but when the protesters refused to
disperse, they fired live ammunition from automatic weapons into the crowds. In
most cases, especially as demonstrations in Daraa grew bigger, security forces
opened live fire without giving advance warning or making any effort to
disperse the protesters by nonviolent means.

From the end of March witnesses consistently reported the
presence of snipers on government buildings near the protests who targeted and
killed many of the protesters. Many of the victims, as described by witnesses
to Human Rights Watch and pictured on scores of cell phone videos smuggled out
of Daraa, sustained head, neck, and chest wounds, suggesting that they were
deliberately targeted.[33]

Other evidence obtained by Human Rights Watch also suggests
that the security forces participating in the operations against the protesters
in Daraa and other cities, had received, at least in a number of cases,
“shoot-to-kill” orders from their commanders. Human Rights Watch
interviewed a soldier from the presidential guard who deserted after the unit
was deployed to deal with a demonstration in the city of Harasta on April 18,
2011. The commanders, the soldier said, initially told them that they were
being deployed to deal with “armed militias,” yet what they saw
upon arrival to Harasta was a peaceful demonstration. Nonetheless, the soldier
said that they received “clear orders to shoot, with no conditions or
prerequisites; literally – to ‘load and shoot.’”[34]

Another witness, a resident of Daraa, described to Human Rights
Watch an episode when together with a group of other protesters he managed to
briefly capture several members of political security branch of the security
services (see below). According to the witness, the captured security men said
they “were only following orders and their orders were to kill, not to
take prisoners,” and added that they could not surrender to the
protesters as they “would have been killed by their commanders if they
refused to shoot.”[35]

Security forces who participated in the crackdown in Daraa
included several army units (witnesses specifically referred to the 4th
Division under the command of Maher al-Asad, President al-Asad’s
brother), as well as various branches of Syria’s mukhabarat
(security services).

Witnesses said that the majority of security forces wore
green military camouflage, but that they eventually learned how to distinguish
members of different branches of the mukhabarat by the colored stripes
on their uniform. One witness told Human Rights Watch that members of military
intelligence wear a green stripe, air force intelligence a white stripe, state
security a yellow stripe, and the presidential guard a black stripe, while
political security often wore plain black uniforms.[36]
Witnesses also said that in some cases mukhabarat members wore civilian
clothes.

According to witnesses, some of the security forces, in
black uniforms, were equipped with riot-control and other special gear,
including bulletproof vests, helmets, shields, and night-vision goggles.
Snipers also wore black uniforms. Some of the forces were from Daraa, while
others were brought in from other regions by helicopters and buses.

Several witnesses independently told Human Rights Watch that
most of the violence was perpetrated by mukhabarat forces, while army
units on several occasions seemed reluctant to shoot at protesters, allowed
them to cross through checkpoints, and, in at least two cases described in
detail to Human Rights Watch, refused orders to shoot and either surrendered to
the protesters or handed over their weapons (see below).

The information about the command structure of Syrian
military and intelligence services is limited. According to public sources,
some of the officials in charge of the forces that reportedly participated in
the crackdown on protesters include:Maher al-Asad, the president’s
younger brother who heads the Presidential Guard and the Fourth Armored
Division; Ali Mamluk, head of Syrian general intelligence directorate; Abdul
Fattah Qudsiyeh, head of military intelligence; Jamil Hassan, head of airforce
intelligence; Muhammad Dib Zaytun, head of political security directorate;
Rustum Ghazali, head of the Damascus countryside branch of Syrian military
intelligence; Hisham Ikhtiar head of the Syrian National Security Bureau;
Muhammad Ibrahim al-Sha`ar, Minister of Interior; Dawud Rajiha, chief of staff
of the armed forces; Asef Shawkat, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces
responsible for Security and Reconnaissance; Ali Habib Mahmoud, minister of
defense, Zuhair Hamad, deputy head of general security directorate; Muhammad
Nasif Khayrbik, deputy vice-president of Syria for national security affairs;
Atef Najib, the head of Political Security in Daraa at the beginning of the
crackdown.[37]

Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch also indicated
that the officials present in Daraa during the operation included Hisham
Bakhtiyar (Ikhtiar), Ali Mamluk, Rustum Ghazali, and Colonel
Lo’ay Al-Ali, head of military intelligence in Daraa. Some released
detainees said they had been personally interrogated by these officials at
their temporary headquarters in Daraa (see below).

Some of the deadliest attacks documented by Human Rights
Watch are described below.

Killings
during attack on al-Omari mosque and protests that followed, March 23-25, 2011

From March 23 to 25, 2011, Syrian security forces killed at
least 31 people during an attack on Daraa’s al-Omari mosque, which had
become a rallying center for protesters and served as a makeshift hospital for
the wounded protesters. The attack started shortly after midnight on March 23.
Several witnesses who were in the neighborhood at the time of the attack, or
later came to support the protesters inside the mosque, told Human Rights Watch
that they heard gunfire at around 12:20 a.m. on March 23 and saw security
forces near the mosque firing at people who were trying to approach. One of the
witnesses, “Omar” (not his real name), said that there were about
60 people inside the mosque yard that night, waiting for the return of a
delegation of tribal leaders who had gone to Damascus to discuss the
protesters’ demands with officials. Omar said:

Shortly after midnight, all electricity was cut off, and
security forces moved toward the mosque. They were shooting into the mosque
yard through three entrances. It was panic and people were running away.
Through loudspeakers people in the mosque called for support. I was nearby and
ran toward the mosque along with many others.

We did not believe they would attack the mosque. We heard
gunfire, but I did not think those were live bullets. I thought they were
blanks. But then a bullet hit my neighbor just next to me. His name was Ayman
Yasin Qteifam. He was 21 years old. We were some 30 or 40 meters from the
mosque when a bullet hit him in the chest. He died on the spot. I pulled his
body away and put it next to the wall and later on, when the fire stopped,
started helping to collect other bodies. There were eight bodies altogether.
Two of the people were killed inside the mosque (we only found them next
morning), and six others killed when they tried to approach the mosque.[38]

Another witness, a non-Syrian national who was in Daraa at
the time of the attack, said that a member of the family he was staying with, a
17-year-old boy, was shot in the leg as he tried to approach the mosque that
night.[39]

The following day Daraa residents buried the dead, and at
around 5 p.m. the funeral procession grew into another protest, joined by the
people from surrounding villages. Omar said that security forces opened fire
again without warning and killed 11 people. Omar was part of the team that was
documenting the events in Daraa, photographing all the bodies and later
collecting the names of those who were killed.

The next day, March 25, 2011, Daraa residents and people who
kept coming to Daraa from neighboring towns launched another Friday
protest. One of the witnesses, “Abdallah” (not his real
name), a mathematics teacher from Daraa city, who was taking part in the
protest, told Human Rights Watch:

There were snipers on the governor’s headquarters and
other official buildings. Other security forces, who were in the streets, first
fired in the air, but the snipers were shooting straight into the crowd. We
started running away and we were jumping over the bodies. Whoever tried to get
the bodies or rescue the wounded got shot at.

Next day, when we counted the bodies that the security
forces had taken and then released and those the people managed to carry away,
we realized that 31 people were killed.[40]

Another witness, “Saleh” (not his real name),
who came to Daraa from Tseel, a village three kilometers northwest of Daraa,
confirmed this account. He said that when the group of protesters he was part
of was about 100 meters away from the roundabout near the governor’s
building, snipers opened fire on the crowd. He said that some demonstrators who
arrived there earlier were trying to topple the statue of the late president
Hafiz al-Asad, and at that point security forces opened heavy fire. He
personally saw at least seven dead bodies of the demonstrators.[41]

Killings during two protests on April 8, 2011

On April 8, after the noon prayers, hundreds of protesters
gathered in two parts of Daraa city divided by a bridge: Daraa al-Balad and
Daraa al-Mahata.

Several thousand protesters started marching from Shaikh Abd
al Aziz mosque in Daraa al-Mahata toward the bridge leading to the other part
of the city, Daraa al-Balad. According to one of the protesters,
“Ahmed” (not his real name), people were carrying olive branches to
symbolize their peaceful intentions.

According to Ahmed, security forces set up a roadblock near
the bridge to prevent the protesters from crossing to the other part of the
city. He said there were about 50 soldiers in front of them, several thousand mukhabarat
agents, both in uniforms and in civilian clothes, behind and around them, and
snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings. Around 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. the
protesters reached the road leading to the bridge and walked toward the
roadblock. Ahmed said the army told them to stop, but they did not obey and
continued moving, and at that point security forces opened live fire. Ahmed,
who was also filming the events, said that they fired straight into the crowd
with Kalashnikovs, and snipers opened fire at the same time. He said he
personally saw about 35 people who immediately fell, hit by bullets. At that
time he did not know whether they were injured or killed, but later that day he
saw the bodies of about 20 killed protesters as well as dozens of wounded in al-Omari
mosque.[42]

Ahmed said that security forces also ran after the
protesters, grabbing some and dragging them into their cars, and beating
others. He said:

I saw one man—he was hit by three bullets, and fell
on the ground. He was clearly dead. The security forces ran toward him, and,
although he was already dead, started beating him with sticks on the face.
Nobody could stop them, and when we finally managed to retrieve the body, it
was unrecognizable—we could only identify the man because he had his civil
identification card in his pocket.

Another witness told Human Rights Watch that around the same
time, after the afternoon prayers, another group of protesters marched from
al-Omari mosque towards the bridge, intending to join the protesters from Daraa
al-Mahata. As they were trying to cross the bridge, security forces from the
same roadblock first fired tear gas, and then opened live fire at them. The
witness said he saw three people who were hit by the bullets and carried into
al-Omari mosque. As he followed them to al-Omari mosque, he saw about ten
wounded protesters there, three of whom died from their wounds while he was in
the mosque.

Two other witnesses also told Human Rights Watch that later
that day a group of protesters marched toward the political security department
in Daraa to request the release of protesters arrested during the
demonstration. He said that when the protesters tried to break into the yard of
the political security building, snipers opened fire, killing at least four people.[43]

Killings during a protest and a funeral procession
in Izraa, April 22-23, 2011

Several witnesses from the towns of Tseel and Tafas,
described to Human Rights Watch a series of killings that happened on April 22
and 23, 2011 near Izraa, a town of 40,000 residents near Daraa.

“Abdul-Karim” (not his real name), a resident of
Tseel, told Human Rights Watch that on April 22, 2011, he and other residents
heard that 11 people were killed during a protest in Izraa, and decided to go
there to support the demonstrators. He said:

At around 3 p.m. we reached a bridge close to Izraa which
was closed by checkpoints on both sides. They let us through the first
checkpoint and then trapped us on the bridge, not letting us through. We were
about 300-400 people on the 70-meters-long, 9-meters-wide bridge. As we were
trapped in the middle, security forces opened fire—not from the
checkpoints; it came from the side. The shooters were from mukhabarat—they
had camouflage uniforms with yellow and red straps on their shoulders, looked
older than the army soldiers, and their uniforms were newer and fitted them
well.

I saw a 7-year-old boy hit in the head right next to me (I
later leant that he was from Namer, his name was Muhammad Ibrahim Hamoudeh),
and three other young men—they were all hit in the head and died on the
spot. About 20 people were wounded—we managed to carry them all away.[44]

The following day, people from different neighboring towns
went to Izraa to participate in the funerals of the protesters killed on April
22. One of the witnesses said that the security forces at the checkpoint on the
bridge told their group to stop and started shooting in the air, but at the
same time others opened fire at the group of people in front of them, who had
crossed the bridge earlier. When they were finally able to get through,
witnesses said, they picked up 17 bodies.[45]

Another witness, “Mazhar” (not his real name)
from Tafas, described the same incident to Human Rights Watch saying that when
his group that was heading to the funeral was about 200 meters from the
checkpoint, security forces first shot in the air. Protesters stopped, and
those who were driving got out of the cars to demonstrate that they presented
no threat, but the security forces then immediately fired into the crowd.
Mazhar said he personally witnessed the killing of five people, and saw dozens
of wounded.[46]

Killings during the siege of Daraa and neighboring
villages and April 29 protest

At around 4:30 a.m. on April 25, Syrian security forces
launched a large-scale military operation in Daraa. Multiple witnesses who were
in Daraa at the time described to Human Rights Watch how the security forces
moved into the city using military vehicles, including numerous tanks and
armored personnel carriers (APCs), under the cover of heavy gun fire that
lasted unabated for about 16 hours. Security forces occupied all neighborhoods
in Daraa, imposed checkpoints, and placed snipers on the roofs of buildings in
many parts of the city. They imposed a siege on the city (see below) and
prevented any movement of residents in the streets. Security forces opened fire
on those who tried to defy the ban on movement and gatherings, or simply left
their homes in an effort to get food or medication.

Activists who were documenting the events in Daraa told
Human Rights Watch that the first nine days of the siege were the deadliest.
They estimated that the security forces killed at least 200 people during this
period and said they were able to verify the names of 115 of them. They said that
due to the siege some of the bodies have not been identified while some
families are still looking for their relatives whom they believe to have been
shot and possibly killed during the first days of the siege.

On April 29, 2011, thousands of people from towns
surrounding Daraa attempted to break the blockade on the city. Nine witnesses
from the towns of Tafas, Tseel, and Sahem al-Golan who were part of this group
told Human Rights Watch that the security forces killed at least 62 people and
wounded scores of others when they opened fire at the approaching protesters.
Human Rights Watch has the names of 44.

Witnesses said that the security forces stopped the
protesters who were trying to approach Daraa at a checkpoint near the Western
entrance of Daraa city. One of the witnesses from the town of Tseel who
participated in the protest said:

We stopped there, waiting for more people to arrive. We
held olive branches, and posters saying we want to bring food and water to
Daraa. We had canisters with water and food parcels with us. Eventually
thousands of people gathered on the road—the crowd stretched for some 6
km.

Then we started moving closer to the checkpoint. We shouted
“peaceful, peaceful,” and in response they opened fire. Security
forces were everywhere, in the fields nearby, on a water tank behind the
checkpoint, on the roof of a nearby factory, and in the trees, and the fire
came from all sides. People started running, falling, trying to carry the
wounded away. Nine people from Tseel were wounded there and one of them died.[47]

Another participant, Mazhar, from Tafas, said:

There was no warning,
no firing in the air. It was simply an ambush. There was gunfire from all
sides, from automatic guns. Security forces were positioned in the fields along
the road, and on the roofs of the buildings. They were deliberately targeting
people. Most injuries were in the head and chest.

Two men from Tafas were killed there: 22-year-old Muhammad
Aiman Baradan and 38-year-old Ziad Hreidin. Ziad stood next to me when a sniper
bullet hit him in the head. He died on the spot. Altogether, 62 people were
killed and more than a hundred wounded, I assisted with their transportation to
Tafas hospital.[48]

Another witness, “Aiman” (not his real name),
from Sahem al-Golan, said that he helped to carry away three of the bodies,
including the body of a 17-year-old boy from his town, Hasan Kamal Hasan Taani,
who was from Sahem al-Golan and died from a sniper bullet that hit him in the
neck.[49]

Mazhar said that the protesters brought at least a hundred
wounded people and bodies of the dead to Tafas hospital as it was the only
hospital in the area that security forces had not occupied. He said he assisted
with the transportation of the wounded and the collection of medical supplies
for the hospital. Other witnesses confirmed that the protesters brought the
wounded and killed to Tafas hospital where they compiled the names of 62 people
killed that day.

Other incidents of killings in and around Daraa

In addition to killings at demonstrations, almost all of the
people interviewed by Human Rights Watch were eyewitnesses to incidents in
which security forces opened fire at people who took no part in the protests.
The victims were bystanders who happened to be near the demonstrations, people
who were trying to escape the violence, or, during the siege, those who dared
to step outside of their houses.

For example, one of the witnesses, “Ali” (not
his real name), described the killing of his neighbor, 23-year-old Rateb Abdul
Salam al-Harri, in the Othman suburb of Daraa. Ali said that in the evening of
April 22, Rateb was returning home on his motorcycle when a security patrol
shouted at him to stop. Ali said:

Rateb stopped and started getting off his motorcycle. Mukhabarat,
in camouflage uniforms, with green straps in their shoulders, were just two
meters away from him—it was right in front of my house. They did not say
anything. One of the agents just shot him in the head, right into his forehead,
as he was getting off his bike. They shot him and simply walked away.

I ran out, barefoot, and together with my neighbor we
brought the body to his uncle’s house so that one of the female members
could notify his mother.[50]

Another witness, Mazhar, said that when security forces
moved into his home town of Tafas in the morning of May 7 they mostly fired
into the air to scare people and to force them inside. However, he also
witnessed snipers deployed on a roof not far from his house open fire on a
group of people who were trying to leave the market, killing one and injuring
another four, including three young men and a woman. Later, as Mazhar and about
a hundred other people tried to escape from the town through Yarmuk valley,
security forces in military vehicles chased them and opened fire, killing two
other men. [51]

Another witness said that on May 16, he was in the hospital
with a sick relative when people brought in two men. One of them was dead, hit
by a bullet in the chest. The other was wounded in the shoulder, and told the
witness that security forces opened fire at them when they were trying to sneak
out of town to get bread. The witness said that the doctors provided some basic
first aid to the wounded man, and then relatives took him and the body of the
other man away, fearing that the security forces would otherwise take them from
the hospital.[52]

According to witnesses
interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the victims of the violence included several
soldiers of the Syrian army who were deployed to Daraa but refused to shoot at
the protesters. Omar described to Human Rights Watch one such case that he
witnessed:

Several days after Daraa came under siege, I was on Yarmuk
street in the city. A group of people there were throwing stones at a sniper
placed on one of the buildings. Security forces then sent an APC to stop them.
The APC stopped near a local school, and six soldiers got out.

But instead of shooting at the people, they immediately
dropped their weapons, raised their hands, and said they were with the
people. Snipers opened fire, and hit four of the soldiers in the back,
while the remaining two managed to run away with the people.

Heavy fire continued, but we were determined to rescue the
bodies. We brought a long metal bar, made a hook on its end, and pulled the
bodies away by the ankles. It turned out the soldiers were from the 15th
airborne division. We buried them together with other martyrs.[53]

Another witness described the same incident to Human Rights
Watch.[54]

Allegations of violence by protesters

Syrian authorities repeatedly claimed that the violence in
Daraa was perpetrated by armed terrorist gangs, incited and sponsored from
abroad.[55]
In its reporting, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, has published the
names of 105 members of Syria’s security forces (police, mukhabarat,
and army) who died in Syria between April 9 and May 31.[56]
According to SANA, they were killed by “armed gangs” or
“terrorists.” Other than the cases mentioned below, Human Rights
Watch has no information on the killing of security members.

On several occasions, starting end of March, after security
forces first used lethal force against the demonstrators, Daraa residents
indeed resorted to violence. For example, they set several buildings on fire,
including the governor’s house and the political security building, burnt
Bashar al-Asad’s photo monument, and tried to topple the statue of Hafiz
al-Asad. They also set several vehicles belonging to the security forces on
fire. Witnesses described some of these episodes to Human Rights Watch; they
were also shown on amateur videos available online.

Several witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch also
said that protestors had killed members of security forces. One witness said
that on one occasion (he could not remember the date of the incident), after
snipers on rooftops killed several protesters, people waited until the snipers
ran out of ammunition, and then ran up to the roofs and threw several snipers
off the buildings.[57]

Another witness said that on April 22, protesters in Nawa, a
town west of Daraa, marched toward the political security office and demanded
the release of two detainees who had been taken by security forces from the
hospital. The witness, “Saleh” (not his real name), said that the
protesters were waving olive branches, and a tribal leader pleaded with the
political security to release the wounded men. Instead, 15 political security
agents opened fire at the crowd, killing at least four people, and wounding
another eight. Saleh said that the protesters, who were more than a thousand
people, had seven birdshot guns among them, which they fired, but mostly they
just kept retreating and coming back, hoping the security forces would run out
of ammunition.

At some point, Saleh said, a soldier from a nearby army unit
brought the protesters two Kalashnikovs and a box of ammunition. According to
Saleh, the protesters repeatedly called on the security forces to surrender as
they were clearly outnumbered by the protesters, and promised not to harm them.
But the security forces continued to fire at the crowd. When the security
forces ran out of ammunition, the protesters overtook the building and released
the two detainees. Saleh said that inside the compound they saw seven members
of the security who had apparently been shot and killed by the protesters
during the confrontation. Saleh said that they captured another three security
members, one of whom was wounded, while the remaining five escaped. Saleh said
that the family members of the wounded ex-detainees wanted to kill the captive
security forces, but the protesters instead beat them up and then brought them
to the hospital where they released them.[58]

At the same time, all of
the witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the protests started
peacefully, with demonstrators often carrying olive branches, unbuttoning their
shirts to show that they had no weapons, and chanting “peaceful,
peaceful” to indicate that they posed no threat to the security forces.
Dozens of videos of Daraa protests provided to Human Rights Watch by witnesses
as well as those posted online corroborate these accounts.

Witnesses, including some Jordanian nationals who came to
Daraa for business and were in the city during the protests but took no part in
the demonstrations, said that protesters only used violence against the
security forces and destroyed government property in response to killings by
the security forces or, as in the case described above, to secure the release
of wounded demonstrators captured by the security forces and believed to be at
risk of further harm.

Such incidents should be further investigated and the
perpetrators of unlawful use of force brought to justice. However, these
incidents by no means justify the massive and systematic use of lethal force
against the demonstrators, which was clearly disproportionate to the threat
presented by the overwhelmingly unarmed crowds.

The use of force by state security forces acting in a
law-enforcement capacity is governed by international standards. Syria is a
party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and therefore
must respect the rights to life and security, and to peaceful assembly.

The UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials states
that “law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly
necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty.”[59]

The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
provides that law enforcement officials “shall, as far as possible, apply
non-violent means before resorting to the use of force” and may use force
“only if other means remain ineffective.”[60]
When the use of force is necessary, law enforcement officials must
“exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness
of the offense.”[61]

Article 10 of the Basic Principles requires that law
enforcement officials “give clear warning of their intent to use
firearms.”[62] Article 9 states
that “intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly
unavoidable in order to protect life.”[63]

The
Basic Principles make clear that there can be no departure from these
provisions on the basis of “exceptional circumstances such as internal
political stability or any other public emergency,” i.e. that these are
non-derogable standards.[64]

Denial of medical assistance

Syrian authorities routinely denied wounded protesters
access to medical assistance. In at least two cases documented by Human Rights
Watch (and reportedly in many others) this denial of medical assistance led to
the death of those wounded.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that security forces
prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded, and on several occasions opened
fire as medical personnel were trying to reach the injured, in one case killing
a doctor and a nurse, an episode the authorities later blamed on “armed
gangs.”[65]
Security forces took control of most of the Daraa hospitals and detained the
wounded who were brought in. As a result, most of those wounded avoided the
hospitals and were treated in makeshift clinics like the one set up inside
al-Omari mosque or in private houses with no access to proper medical care.
According to witnesses, after security forces stormed al-Omari mosque on March
24 (see above), they destroyed or confiscated all medical equipment that had
been brought into the mosque to assist the wounded.

Many witnesses told Human Rights Watch that during the
protests, security forces prevented people from rescuing the wounded. For
example, one witness, Saleh, said that when security forces shot at protesters
near the political security headquarters during the April 8 protest three of
those hit died on the spot, but a fourth was still alive. Saleh said:

I saw a man who tried to pull the wounded guy away, but
security forces continued to shoot. They were clearly targeting them—they
again shot the wounded guy, this time in the head, and hit the rescuer as
well—I don’t know whether he survived. Another man tried to take a
dead body away on the motorcycle, but as he tried to approach, he got shot in
the shoulder, then again in the leg, and when he fell off and other people made
a move toward him, a sniper hit him in the head, and I believe he died.[66]

Another witness, Ahmed, said that during the April 8 protest
the security forces also did not allow the ambulances to approach the road to
pick up the wounded, and kept shooting when other protesters tried to carry the
wounded away.[67]

Ahmed told Human Rights Watch:

I went to al-Omari mosque at around 2:30 p.m. and saw the
bodies of 20 dead protesters and dozens of wounded who were brought there.
People were lying on the floor, all over the place, and there were a couple of
doctors and nurses and also local women struggling to help the injured. But
they could not do much. They only had the basic supplies brought from the local
pharmacies. The hospitals were blocked by the security forces and it was
impossible to bring the necessary equipment or supplies into the mosque.
Several people with serious injuries were dying and there was nothing we could
do to help them.[68]

One of the witnesses, “Mazen” (not his real
name), told Human Rights Watch that during the attack on protesters on April 29
(see above), which resulted in at least 62 deaths and hundreds of injuries, no
ambulances were available to transport the wounded. He said:

We struggled to take the wounded away on motorcycles and
trucks. At the Tafas hospital, which was the only hospital not occupied by the
security forces, medical personnel quickly ran out of supplies. They had almost
nothing to perform surgeries and there was almost nowhere to get the supplies
from. The hospital provided first assistance and then we quickly sent people to
private homes as we were expecting the security forces to come and arrest them
any moment.[69]

Security forces also arrested medical personnel and
ambulance drivers and confiscated the ambulances to prevent the drivers from
assisting the wounded. One of the witnesses, “Khaled” (not his real
name), said that two of his cousins, both ambulance drivers, were prevented
from rescuing the wounded and had their ambulances confiscated. Khaled said
that the security forces stopped one of them at a checkpoint about a week after
the siege began. They confiscated the ambulance and warned the driver not to go
back to work.

Khaled said that the second cousin, who is 57 years old, was
arrested and held for four days at the political security department in Daraa.
Security forces then released the man but confiscated his ambulance. Khaled
also said that the security forces released the man at around 8 p.m., during
the curfew, and to avoid being shot he crawled on his knees, with his hands up
in the air, through six checkpoints in order to get home.[70]

Several witnesses from different parts of Daraa also told
Human Rights Watch that after the security forces imposed a siege on Daraa and
neighboring towns they burnt or destroyed many of the pharmacies and did not
allow the delivery of medical supplies into the town (see below).

In at least two cases documented by Human Rights Watch,
denial of medical assistance or obstacles to obtaining medical care resulted in
the deaths of wounded protesters.

One of the witnesses, Saleh, said that during the April 29
attack described above, security forces wounded a young man from Tseel,
18-year-old Ahed Khalil Al-Qarfan. Saleh, who was among those who tried to
rescue the man, said that Ahed was hit in both legs, and they first took him to
Tafas hospital. But the hospital was running out of supplies and could not
provide proper care. Saleh said:

We then decided to take him in a car to a hospital in
Qunaitra. There were four checkpoints on the way, and at each checkpoint mukhabarat
stopped us, checked the entire car, and all of the passengers, including the
wounded, turning and undressing him although it was clear he was bleeding and
in a lot of pain.

We begged them to let us through. Ahed’s father was
crying, saying, “It’s my son, he is hurt,” but they pushed us
aside, asking for weapons and telling us not to interfere with the search. They
said, ‘You pigs, you animals, you don’t deserve to live.’

At the fourth checkpoint, Ahed died from massive blood
loss. A nurse who was in the car with us said he was dead, but his father
insisted that we take him to the hospital. In Qunaitra, they confirmed that he
was already dead.[71]

Another witness, Omar,
said that his neighbor, 22-year-old Ahmad Omar Zreqat, was wounded on April 25
when the large-scale military operation started in Daraa. According to Omar, a
bullet went through Ahmad’s shoulder and into his liver. The hospital was
under the control of the security forces so his parents did not take Ahmad
there, fearing he would be arrested. As the city was under siege, no doctor or
nurse could come to the house, and the parents only provided basic first aid
which was insufficient given the seriousness of the injury. Omar said that on
May 4, 2011 Ahmad died and his parents buried him in the yard of their house.[72]

Denial of medical aid is a form of inhuman treatment and may
be a violation of the right to life guaranteed by international law, as it
creates a life-threatening situation for seriously injured persons. The UN
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms also stipulate that
“whenever the lawful use of force and firearms is unavoidable, law
enforcement officials shall… ensure that assistance and medical aid are
rendered to any injured or affected persons at the earliest possible
moment.”[73]

Arbitrary arrests, “disappearances,”
and torture

Throughout the country, Syrian authorities also launched a
massive campaign of arrests, subjecting thousands of people to arbitrary
detention and brutal torture. As in the rest of Syria, in Daraa the arrests
started in late March to early April. But the campaign intensified dramatically
after the imposition of the siege.

Witnesses from Daraa city and neighboring towns described to
Human Rights Watch large-scale sweep operations conducted by the security
forces, targeted arrests of activists and their family members, as well as
arrests at checkpoints and by patrols in the streets. The exact numbers are
impossible to verify but information collected by Human Rights Watch suggests
that the security forces detained hundreds of people each day. Some of them
were released several days or weeks later, while others have not reappeared,
and in most cases the families have no information on their fate or
whereabouts.

Many of the detainees were children. One of the witnesses
told Human Rights Watch that out of about 370 people he shared a cell with,
more than 70 were children.[74]
Another witness mentioned the arrest of two of his nephews, ages 14 and 15.[75]

Large-scale sweep operations

The majority of the arrests, if not all, seemed entirely
arbitrary with no formal charges ever brought against the detainees. Local
activists told Human Rights Watch that those detained in Daraa were initially
held in several ad hoc detention facilities, including a stadium, a football
field, a customs department building, two local schools, and several big yards
in private houses occupied by the security forces. This information was
corroborated by released detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch. The
detainees were then brought to the military intelligence department, the
political security department, or other facilities in Daraa and many were then
sent to various detention facilities in Damascus.

Four witnesses from
Tafas, a town 11 kilometers north of Daraa, said that at around 8:30 a.m. on
May 7, 2011, security forces moved into the town with tanks and APCs, and launched
large-scale sweep operations over a period of several days, breaking into
houses and arresting people. Witnesses estimated that up to a thousand people
were detained in the course of the operation, about 600 of whom were released
within a week, while new arrests continued. The security forces targeted
activists and their family members, medical personnel, and religious leaders,
but also arrested a number of individuals who never took part in the protests.

Six witnesses described a sweep operation in the Othman
neighborhood of Daraa on May 1, 2011. According to witnesses, during the
operation groups of between 15 and 20 security forces entered the houses,
breaking the doors if the residents failed to open quickly enough, and smashed
everything inside, allegedly looking for weapons, mobile phones, as well as for
those who took part in the demonstrations. All of the witnesses said that
security forces took away mobile phones, money, and other valuable items from
their homes.

Released detainees told Human Rights Watch that security
forces arrested over a hundred people from Othman that day. Two of the
witnesses, arrested that day and later released, provided detailed accounts of
their ordeal to Human Rights Watch.

One of the witnesses, “Ali” (not his real name),
said that early in the morning on May 1, a group of about 15 of security forces
members broke into his house. He said:

They went inside, shot at the ceiling, and started turning
everything upside down. They broke furniture and framed Koran verses on the
walls, and took my watch, mobile, and money. They started beating me, and two
of my small children got so scared that they peed on themselves. At the same
time, they were breaking into other houses on the street. They blindfolded and
handcuffed me and put me into a bus, beating me all the way. I could feel that
there were many more detainees there.[76]

Ali said that he was then brought to a fenced football field
in Daraa and when he managed to move his blindfold away from his eyes, he could
see about 2,000 other detainees there. He said that the field was a temporary
base for high-level security officials Hisham Bakhtiyar and Rustum Ghazali, who
he believed were in charge of the operation in Daraa. He said he knew about it
because when the violence began tribal leaders used to go there to meet with
Bakhtiyar and Ghazali, and then told people about their meetings.

The second witness, “Hussein” (not his real)
name, corroborated this account. Both witnesses described to Human Rights Watch
an execution of detainees that took place shortly after they were brought to
the football field (see below).

Both witnesses said that the security forces brought them,
along with several hundred others, from the football field to the military
intelligence department in Daraa (both could see the place and recognized it),
and later to Damascus where they spent about two weeks in detention.

Another witness, “Mustafa” (not his real name),
a Jordanian national, who came to Daraa for business and could not leave the
city after the siege began, was arrested during a sweep operation on May 2. He
said he was staying in the house of his business partner in Daraa al-Balad,
near al-Omari mosque, when security forces started breaking into the houses. He
said the security forces detained about 150 people from the neighborhood and
took them all to a fenced yard of a private house occupied by the security
forces and turned into an ad-hoc detention facility. When the guards realized
he was a foreigner, they immediately transferred him to a different detention
facility in Daraa and then sent him to Damascus where he spent three weeks in
detention in different facilities.[77]

Torture and ill-treatment in detention

Ali, Hussein, and Mustafa, as well as the relatives of other
released detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch, said that all detainees,
without exception, were subjected to various forms of torture and degrading
treatment. The methods of torture included prolonged beatings with sticks,
twisted wires, and other devices; electric shocks administered with tasers; use
of improvised metal and wooden “racks,” and, in at least one case
documented by Human Rights Watch, the rape of a male detainee with a baton. The
interrogators and guards also subjected the detainees to various forms of
humiliating treatment, such as urinating on the detainees, stepping on their
faces, and making them kiss their shoes. Several detainees said they were
repeatedly threatened with imminent execution.

All of the former detainees described appalling detention
conditions, with grossly overcrowded cells where at times detainees could only
sleep in turns, and lack of food.

Hussein described the ordeal he and other detainees went
through, first in Daraa and then in Damascus:

At the military intelligence department, they took us down
into the basement. I could hear the sounds of beatings and screams. Then they
took me into an interrogation room. They started beating me, saying, “You
want freedom? Here is your freedom.” At some point, my blindfold slipped off
and I saw another detainee. He was hung by the hands, with his feet about 15 cm
above the floor, and the guards were whipping him all over.

Then the interrogator said, “Put him on the flying
carpet!” The guard stretched me face down on a wooden plate and started
lifting the front part backwards so that my back started cracking. I screamed
and said I would admit to anything they want. They lowered the rack, and
started whipping me on my legs and buttocks with a twisted rubber whip. It
lasted for some 30 minutes, until I fainted. They splashed water on my face,
and brought me back to the cell.

They kept bringing more people in, including my cousins and
neighbors. At some point, they brought in an old man, maybe 75 or 80 years old,
with his two sons. One of the guards told him they wouldn’t beat him
because of his age but told him to kiss his shoe. The old man bowed and kissed
his shoe. And then this guard told another one, “Now, go wash my shoe
because this dirty man kissed it.”

About seven hours later the guards started putting us into
buses, saying we would now be executed. In the bus, I ended up next to one of
my cousins. We were convinced they would now kill us, and started saying our
final prayers. But instead, they brought us to Damascus. They pushed us into a
big room, there were many hundreds of other detainees there, most of them from
Daraa—I could tell by their dialect.[78]

Hussein said the guard then again put him into a bus and
moved him to another facility where he spent ten days in detention. He said
that during interrogations there the guards beat him with whips and made him
confess to various crimes and put his fingerprints on documents he could not
see.

Ali provided a similar account of his detention and torture.
He said that after he spent a day in the military intelligence department in
Daraa, he was transferred by bus to Damascus. As he found out after his
release, he was taken to the military intelligence branch located in the Kfar
Susa neighborhood. He said:

We stayed in a big room, underground, with hundreds of
other detainees. Every now and then the guards would call the names of some ten
people and take them away. They would say, “You are traitors and will be
executed.” These people were never brought back, and I could not sleep, fearing
that any moment they may call my name.

On the fourth day, they took me out for an interrogation,
along with several other detainees. They started accusing me of various crimes,
and beating me, but I denied the charges. Then they put me face down on the
floor and fixed some metal device, like a chair, on my back, and then flipped
me over so that my back twisted—it was unbearable and I was ready to
admit anything.[79]

Ali also said, crying as he was telling the story, that in
the interrogation room, the guards undressed him and raped him by forcing a
baton into his anus, while one of them urinated on him. His condition at the
time of the interview was consistent with this account: he was in lot of pain,
and could not sit down or stand up without assistance.[80]

Mustafa, a Jordanian national, told Human Rights Watch that
during interrogations in Daraa he was subjected to torture on a metal
“rack” which the interrogators used to pull his back backwards
causing unbearable pain. He said that in Damascus he was also beaten and
punched on the face during interrogations “but it was nothing compared to
what they did to the Syrians.” He said that he spent eight days in a
room, 4 by 4 meters, together with 65 other detainees where they had no room to
even sit down, and had to sleep in turns.[81]

These and other witnesses told Human Rights Watch that they
were forced to sign confessions ”admitting” to participation in
violence, membership in terrorist groups, and other fabricated charges.
In some cases, they were forced to put their finger prints on blank pages or
documents they could not see because they were blindfolded. Both Hussein and
Ali were eventually brought before a judge in Damascus, who released them both
despite the admissions they made during interrogations. The judicial review
appeared quite arbitrary in terms of who was released and who was not.

Ali said that he was brought before a judge in the Justice
Palace who “released everybody over 40 years old” (including Ali),
and “sent some of the younger men back to jail, regardless of whether or
not they participated in the protests and despite clear signs that they had
been tortured.”[82]

Hussein said:

I was among 130 detainees who were brought before a judge
that day. When it was my turn, the judge showed me the confession that I signed
under torture. In response, I just took off my shirt—my entire back was
covered in bruises. The judge immediately told the clerk, “Write that he
confessed under torture and get a new statement.” And then he released
me, and stamped my hand so that I could get back home through numerous
checkpoints.[83]

The ban against torture is one of the most fundamental
prohibitions in international human rights law. No exceptional circumstances
can justify torture. Syria is a party to key international treaties that ban
torture under all circumstances, even during recognized states of emergency and
require investigation and prosecution of those responsible for torture. These
include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment,
which Syria ratified on July 1, 2004.[84]

Targeted arrests and “disappearances”

In addition to large-scale sweep operations, Syrian security
forces also conducted targeted arrests of activists, organizers of the
protests, medical personnel, and people who tried to document the events in
Daraa, as well as their family members.

Hassan Muhammad al-Aswad, a prominent lawyer from Daraa,
told Human Rights Watch that on April 4, a joint group of different branches of
the mukhabarat arrested him from his house in Daraa. He said he was
first taken to the military intelligence department in Daraa, then to political
security department, and the same day transferred to Damascus. Al-Aswad said
that during all these transfers the guards beat him and electrocuted him with
electric tasers. He was detained and interrogated in Damascus for several days
and then the guards brought him back to Daraa. He said that in Daraa they brought
him to a Baath party office where Rustum Ghazali and Hisham Bakhtiyar
personally interrogated him and threatened him, saying the number of security
forces in Daraa “is three times bigger than the number of
demonstrators” and the protesters thus stand no chance against the
authorities.[85]

Al-Aswad also said that when he was briefly detained again
on April 12, 2011 he was interrogated by the head of military intelligence in
Daraa, Col. Lo’ay Al-Ali, and the head of military intelligence for the
southern region, whose name he could not remember.

Al-Aswad also said that at the end of March security forces
arrested his colleague, the lawyer Samer Kasem al-Akrad, together with a
medical doctor as the two were trying to rescue wounded from al-Omari mosque.
He said that after Samer was released several days later there were visible
marks of torture (burns marks and traces of whipping) on his body.[86]

One of the activists from Tafas, who remains in hiding, said
that the security forces arrested his 75-year-old father on May 7, released him
the next day, and then on May 22 arrested him again, along with the
activist’s’ 20-year-old son.[87]

Another activist, “Abdallah” from Daraa city,
said that on May 13, 2011 security forces arrested his 57-year-old brother, who
is illiterate, has no political affiliation, and never took part in
demonstrations. At the time of the interview he remained in detention. Abdallah
said that they also arrested his wife and questioned her for six hours, forcing
her to reveal his whereabouts. He said his wife was taken to the ad hoc
facility at the football field, where Major General Rustum Ghazali personally
interrogated her.[88]

Omar, who was active in documenting the events and Daraa and
eventually managed to flee the city, said that on April 29, security forces
arrested three of his brothers who were businessmen and took no part in the
protests. He believed they were arrested just because they were related to him.
Omar said that at the time of the interview, three weeks after the arrest, the
family still had no information on the brothers’ fate or whereabouts
despite their repeated inquiries with local authorities in Daraa.[89]

Another activist, “Muhammad” (not his real
name), said that on the first day of the siege, April 25, security forces broke
into his house in Daraa al-Mahata (he was not at home, knowing that the
security forces may have been looking for him), and arrested his son, two
brothers, and four nephews, two of whom are children. He said that the family
still has no information on the fate and whereabouts of two of the nephews,
both teenage boys, while the other relatives remain in detention in `Adra
prison near Harasta.[90]

Almost all other witnesses also told Human Rights Watch that
they knew of relatives, friends, or neighbors who had been arrested by the
security forces and that since their arrests the families had been able to
obtain no information about them.

Under international law, a person’s arrest or
detention followed by refusal to acknowledge the arrest or detention, or to
provide information on the fate or whereabouts of the detained person,
constitutes an enforced disappearance.[91]

Executions and mass graves

Two witnesses independently reported to Human Rights Watch a
case of an extrajudicial execution of detainees on May 1, 2011 at the ad hoc
detention facility at the football field in Daraa.

One of the witnesses, Ali, said:

We were brought to the football field where I managed to
take my blindfold off. There were about 2,000 detainees there.

They brought me there at around 6 a.m., and several hours
later the guards went around the field, randomly picking some detainees. I
counted them—they picked 26 people, all young, physically fit men. As
they picked them, they would say “we found weapons on you.” I knew
one man, his name is Taleb, his wife is from our neighborhood.

They lined them up in one line, facing away from us, from
where I was standing. Six or seven soldiers were in front of us, some 2 meters
away, and the selected detainees in front of the soldiers, facing away, about
10 meters in front of the soldiers. They were all blindfolded and handcuffed.
The soldiers had Kalashnikovs.

One of the soldiers, I think he was an officer, but I
don’t know for sure, raised his hand, and waved, and they fired, without
saying anything. It was automatic gun fire, and the 26 men immediately fell on
the ground.

Everybody was too scared to even move, let alone say
anything. Many people were blindfolded and couldn’t see what happened.

The soldiers picked up the bodies and threw them onto a
military truck. These are Russian military trucks that look like big
Landrovers, they belong to military battalion 132. This battalion is stationed
in Daraa, not far from the place where I live, so I’ve seen them before.
They brought three of these trucks and loaded all the bodies on them, and drove
away.[92]

Ali said that he did not know what happened to other bodies,
but Taleb’s body was never returned to the family, and Taleb’s wife
did not know what happened to him, as he and other witnesses were too scared to
tell anyone about what they saw.

Another witness, Hussein, interviewed independently,
provided a similar account to Human Rights Watch. He said:

They brought me to the football field at around 9 a.m., I
was blindfolded and handcuffed but could feel and hear that there were lots of
people there already.

About 50 minutes later, I was standing with my face to the
wall, and eventually managed to push my blindfold a little bit up by rubbing my
forehead against the wall. I could then see the field by turning my head back
and forth. There were more than 1,500 people there.

I saw the soldiers leading away a group of about 20 men, I
couldn’t tell exactly how many, at gunpoint. They took them to the side,
about 50 meters away from where I was standing. I couldn’t see much, but
less than 15 minutes later I heard automatic gunfire and screams.

I knew immediately this group was killed. I was convinced
we would be next. We were scared to even whisper.

Then the soldiers started screaming at us, saying,
“Dogs, you want freedom, you’ll have it.” They pointed their
guns at us, loading and unloading them, saying, “You are sentenced to
death by gunfire.” They didn’t mention the guys that were just
killed, but it was clear. I was convinced they would shoot us right there.

I didn’t see what happened to the bodies; I
didn’t dare to turn my head any more.[93]

Human Rights Watch has not been able to further corroborate
these accounts. However, the detailed information provided by two independent
witnesses, and the fact that other parts of their statements, concerning their
detention in the military intelligence facility in Daraa and then in Damascus,
were fully corroborated by other detainees held in these facilities, support
the credibility of the allegations.

A number of Daraa residents and two Syrian activists
interviewed by Human Rights Watch referred to the existence of mass graves in
Daraa. The limited information available to Human Rights Watch is not
sufficient to determine whether the mass graves are connected to the
executions.

The discovery of bodies in a shallow unmarked grave in the
Bihar area, around 200 meters from the southern cemetery of Daraa (in an area
locally known as Tal`et Muhammad Assarie) was widely reported on May 16, 2011
after video footage was posted on YouTube showing a number of men pulling dead
bodies from the ground. The footage shows earth-moving machinery with Daraa
license plate number 977149 assisting in the digging.[94] A
Daraa resident from the Abazeid family, currently in another Arab country, told
Human Rights Watch that at least seven bodies were found and that five of the
bodies were identified as members of the Abazeid family: 62-year-old Abdullah
Abdul Aziz Abazeid and his four grown-up sons, Sameer, Samer, Muhammad, and
Sulayman. The other two bodies had not been identified but were of a woman and
a girl, the source said. He had received the footage from a close friend in
Daraa and had helped post the footage on YouTube. He said:

On May 15, a Daraa man informed a number of local residents
that a strong smell emanated from a patch of land around 200 meters from the
Bihar cemetery. The next day a group of young men, including my cousin, went to
the spot and found bodies close to the surface. They informed the local
authorities who dispatched some people to dig them up.[95]

One of the witnesses told Human Rights Watch that on the day
when the grave was discovered he was in the hospital and saw security personnel
bringing in nine bodies in sacks. Five of the bodies, he said, were soon
identified by relatives as members of Abazeid family (the witness knew two of
the sons), while the others remained unidentified.[96]

Effect of the siege

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that during the siege
Daraa residents experienced acute shortages of food, water (because the
security forces shot and damaged most of the water tanks), medicine, and other
necessary supplies. The electricity and all communications were cut off for at
least 15 days, and, at the time of this writing, remained cut off in several
neighborhoods in the city.

One of the witnesses said:

There were tanks and other military vehicles almost on
every street, checkpoints everywhere, and security patrols. They separated all
neighborhoods from each other. It was a full-scale occupation. We heard
constant gunfire and could see snipers on the roofs, and we could not get out.
In order to move in between houses, people broke holes in the back walls of the
houses.

For two days, I stayed inside. Then we started running out
of food and I went out, trying to get some bread for my family, along with some
neighbors. Suddenly, we saw a civilian bus. We tried to approach it, thinking
it was carrying food, and waved to the driver. But as we approached, we saw
there were mukhabarat agents inside. Without a word, they opened fire at
us. We started running away. I know of at least one man who was wounded there,
my 42-year-old neighbor, a bullet hit him in the leg.

By the fourth day, pharmacies ran out of supplies, and many
of them were destroyed or looted by the security forces. All shops and bakeries
were closed. We used whatever we had stored at homes, and shared among
neighbors, but then everybody ran out of food. People tried to smuggle
medications and food into the town by using secret roads.

There was no electricity and gas. We used firewood to cook,
and candles to have some light, but we soon ran out, and there was nowhere to
get them. Everything was off—TV, radio, landlines, cell phones. We did
not know what was going on and could not contact even our relatives in other
neighborhoods.[97]

Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch that during the
siege they tried to get to nearby towns to buy bread and were turned away at
the checkpoints where security forces told them that they “didn’t
deserve bread.” They also referred to several cases where people who were
caught bringing bread into the city were detained or even shot at (see above).

Human Rights Watch interviewed several drivers who described
how during the siege they tried to smuggle in medical supplies requested by the
doctors and food items. They also confirmed that those who were caught were
detained and tortured.[98]

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that from April 25, until
at least May 22, the authorities forbade residents of Daraa from praying in
mosques and banned the call to prayer. Security forces occupied all 15 mosques
in the city and, according to witnesses who saw the mosques after they
reopened, desecrated them by scrawling graffiti on the walls. Some of the
mosques also came under heavy fire. Omar said, for example, that at least seven
shells were fired at Abu Bakr Sadiq mosque, apparently in retaliation for
efforts of the people to prevent snipers from occupying the mosque’s
minaret.

One of the witnesses who went to Abu Bakr Sadiq mosque on
May 22, said that the mosque was damaged by gunfire and was desecrated with
alcohol bottles on the floor and graffiti saying, “Your god is Bashar,
there is no god but Bashar” on the walls, a reference to Syria’s president
Bashar al-Asad.[99]

As the killings continued during the siege on Daraa,
residents also struggled to deal with the growing number of dead bodies. Due to
the lack of electricity, the bodies could not be stored in morgues. At the same
time, people were reluctant to bury the bodies before they could be identified
by relatives, which in many cases was impossible due to lack of communication
and restrictions on movement.

As a result, Daraa residents started storing the bodies in
mobile vegetable refrigerators that could run on diesel. One of the witnesses,
“Muhammad” (not his real name) told Human Rights Watch:

On the first day of the siege, we took one of the
refrigerators and started using it to store the bodies. We parked it in the
eastern cemetery and would bring the bodies there at night, secretly. On the
first day of the siege, between 5 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., we put 14 bodies in this
one truck. By the tenth day of the siege, there were about 50 bodies in there,
including two women, a 14-year-old girl, and four soldiers who refused to shoot
at the protesters and got killed by mukhabarat. From people in other
neighborhoods we heard there were at least two other refrigerators like this
one where they stored the bodies.

On May 5, security forces confiscated the refrigerator.
They arrived on two APCs, a soldier got inside and drove it away. They clearly
knew what was inside. We know that they confiscated the other two refrigerators
as well. We heard they took them to Damascus, but then most of the bodies were
returned to the families—on the condition that they would bury them
quietly, without a procession, and that they would sign papers saying that the
deceased died from natural causes.[100]

Two other witnesses confirmed this account to Human Rights Watch.
One of them provided video footage of the bodies stored inside the refrigerator
that he said he filmed on May 4, a day before the military took the
refrigerator away.[101]

While the authorities
eased the siege on Daraa around May 5, they simultaneously expanded the
large-scale military operation to other villages in Daraa district. Witnesses
from Tafas said that in the early morning of May 7 they heard heavy gunfire and
saw security forces moving into the town with about 60 tanks and APCs. They
security forces then conducted a large-scale sweep operation (see above),
breaking into houses and arresting large numbers of people.

The security forces imposed a curfew on the town, allowing
the residents to move around only for a few hours a day and preventing them
from leaving the town. According to the witnesses, they also confiscated and
destroyed all of the motorcycles they found to prevent people from moving
outside of town. Witnesses believed that Tafas was targeted because its
residents took part in the protests and were among those who tried to break the
siege on Daraa on April 29. Tafas also had one of the few functioning hospitals
that was not taken under the control of the security forces and for that reason
many of the wounded protesters had been brought there.

In Daraa the curfew was eventually moved to 7 p.m., but as
of May 22, 2011 gatherings were prohibited and movement between neighborhoods
remained severely restricted.

The siege violates Syria's obligations, as a party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to
respect fundamental rights and the rules of law guaranteed in the treaties
including freedom of movement and the right to health. Even during a genuine
emergency, any restrictions on rights must be strictly limited and justified by
the exigencies of the actual situation, conditions that Syria has not met.[102]
Syria’s state of emergency officially ended on April 21, 2011.

The siege also constituted collective punishment, which is
any form of punitive sanctions and harassment imposed on families or other
targeted groups for actions that they themselves did not personally commit.

Information blockade

Since the beginning of the protests in Daraa, Syrian
authorities put enormous efforts into ensuring that information about the
events did not get out. No independent observers could enter the city and one
journalist who managed to report from Daraa was arrested upon his return to
Damascus.

Witnesses told Human
Rights Watch that Syrian security forces confiscated cell phones that had
footage of the events and arrested those who tried to get images or other
information out.

After security forces imposed a siege on Daraa, getting
information out of the city became virtually impossible. All means of
communication were shut down, including Syrian cell phone networks. Many
witnesses told Human Rights Watch that cell phones were the first thing
authorities confiscated during searches in their houses or at checkpoints.

Some people had or managed to obtain Jordanian SIM cards for
their phones, but the use of these soon became a very dangerous endeavor. One
of the witnesses, a Syrian driver who used to transport goods from Daraa into
Jordan, told Human Rights Watch:

At checkpoints and at the border, security forces now check
everything on our phones—every message, every image, every video, every
number. They are also looking for Jordanian SIM cards, examining every
centimeter of your clothes, and if they find any it may well be a death
sentence.

I was coming through the border in the beginning of May,
and had two Jordanian SIM cards with me. They asked whether I had any, and I
denied, but then they conducted a full body search and found them in a very
sensitive area.

They also found a memory card from my phone; everything was
erased, aside from one audio file—it was a song that people of Daraa
wrote during the protests. Then they said, “You are in big trouble
now.” They took me in for an interrogation, and I just started praising
Bashar, and thanking them for protecting us from the trouble-makers. I
convinced them, and they let me go. They need us, after all—who else
would they get cigarettes and other stuff from, if not from the drivers? But they
made me sign a pledge that I will never bring any Jordanian SIM cards with me.

In the interrogator’s office I saw four other
drivers, all arrested for having Jordanian SIM cards, from what I understood.
All four were on their knees, facing the wall, and the guards were beating them
severely.[103]

Security forces also did not spare foreign nationals whom
they suspected of collecting and disseminating information about the situation
in Daraa, or anyone suspected of passing the information on to foreign media.
Two released detainees independently described to Human Rights Watch the
torture which the security forces inflicted on a national of the United Arab
Emirates whom they detained in Daraa. One of the witnesses, Hussein, said he
met the man after he was brought to Damascus (see above). He said:

About an hour after they brought me in, one of the guards
came into the cell and asked, “Where is the eyewitness?” One man
stepped forward and they took him away. An hour later they brought him back,
unconscious, his back was bleeding. After he came to, he explained that he had
been arrested from Daraa, and the security forces called him an
“eyewitness” because they found phone numbers for Al Jazeera, Al
Arabiya, and BBC on his mobile phone.[104]

Another witness, Mustafa, corroborated this account. He
spent most of his time in detention together with the “eyewitness.”[105]

On March 20, security forces detained Rami Sulayman from
Da`el, a small town neighboring Daraa, because of a phone call he made to BBC
Arabic to describe the situation, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.[106]

On March 22, security services stopped the car of an AFP
photographer and videographer in the old city of Daraa, beating them and
seizing their equipment.[107]

On March 29, two plain clothes security men arrested
Suleiman al-Khalidi, a Jordanian journalist working for Reuters. Al-Khalidi had
entered Daraa on March 18 and was the only journalist who succeeded in
reporting from the city for 10 consecutive days. On March 29, he had gone to
Damascus to meet an activist when the security forces detained him.[108]
On May 26, al-Khalidi published an account of his ill-treatment during his
four-day detention:

“We will make you forget who you are," one of
them threatened as I was beaten for the sixth time on my face. I could not see
what hit me. It felt like fists. Twice in detention I was whipped on the
shoulder, leaving bruises that stayed a week. [109]

He also described the torture of Syrian detainees that he
witnessed.

Recommendations

To the Syrian Government

Immediately halt the use of excessive and lethal force
against demonstrators and other persons by security forces. Carry out an
independent and transparent investigation into the excessive use of force
and shooting of protesters by the security services. Discipline or
prosecute, consistent with international fair trial standards, those responsible,
regardless of rank;

Investigate allegations of enforced disappearances,
ill-treatment and torture and abuse against detainees and, consistent with
international fair trial standards, prosecute those responsible;

Release unconditionally all detainees held merely for
participating in peaceful protests or for criticizing the Syrian
authorities;

End repressive actions against, and intimidation of,
members and supporters of the political opposition, civil society
activists, journalists, and human rights lawyers by police and other state
agents;

Provide immediate and unhindered access to international
organizations, UN special mechanisms, and members of the diplomatic
community in Syria to hospitals, places of detention, and prisons;

Grant access to Syria to the media and to independent
observers to freely monitor and report on developments and human rights
abuses in the country;

Provide full cooperation and unhindered access to UN
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) team tasked by
the UN Human Rights Council on April 29, 2011 to investigate alleged
violations of international human rights law and crimes committed against
civilians; and

Facilitate, under
international supervision, the exhumation, identification, and return to
family members of the bodies disposed of by the security forces in the
area of Daraa.

To the UN Security Council

Condemn in the strongest terms the Syrian
authorities’ systematic violations of human rights, including
killings; arbitrary detention; disappearances; and torture of peaceful
demonstrators, human rights defenders, and journalists. Demand an
immediate end to these abuses and the lifting of the siege of Daraa;

Recognize that these widespread and systematic violations
of Syrian’s obligations under international human rights law may
amount to crimes against humanity and demand that they be investigated and
those responsible be held accountable;

Urge the Syrian government to provide the OHCHR team,
charged with investigating human rights violations, immediate unrestricted
access to Syria and to cooperate fully with their investigation, as set
forth in HRC resolution A/HRC/RES/S-16/1;

Request that the UN Secretary-General starts reporting
regularly on the situation in Syria, and on the compliance of the Syrian
authorities with any statement or resolution the Council might adopt;

Encourage and support
efforts to investigate and prosecute the grave, widespread, and systematic
human rights violations committed in Syria since mid-March 2011. In the
absence of adequate steps by the Syrian government to investigate and
prosecute these violations, refer the situation in Syria to the
International Criminal Court; and

Adopt targeted sanctions on officials responsible for the
ongoing grave, widespread, and systematic violations of international
human rights law in Syria since mid-March 2011.

To the UN Human Rights Council

Remain seized of the situation as long as the repression
of peaceful protests and critics continues, including through regular
briefings from OHCHR;

Ensure follow up to the recommendations arising from
the investigation mandated by the Human Rights Council on April 29,
2011 and other UN mechanisms reacting to the situation; and

Respond urgently to any credible reports of reprisals by
Syrian authorities against those who cooperate and provide
information to the investigation and other UN human rights
mechanisms.

To United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon

Immediately appoint a special envoy for Syria and demand
that he be allowed unimpeded access throughout the country; and

Report to the Security Council on the situation in Syria
at regular intervals or whenever serious developments occur on the ground,
and if necessary, urge the council to take appropriate action;

Continue to speak out against human rights violations in
Syria and to use your access to Syrian authorities to urge them to bring
an end to the violence and cooperate with your envoy and OHCHR
investigators.

To the Arab League

Strongly and publicly condemn and demand an end to human
rights violations by the government of Syria, including the use of
excessive force and unnecessary lethal force against all persons; impunity
for security forces abuse; arbitrary arrests of activists and protesters;
the use of torture and other mistreatment; and the general climate of
repression faced by Syria’s citizens. Urge that all those
responsible for such violations be brought to justice;

Call on the Syrian authorities to build the institutions
that ensure respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law,
including an independent judiciary and a professional police force.

Acknowledgments

This report was researched and written by a team of Human
Rights Watch researchers.

Tom Porteous, deputy program director, Joe Stork, deputy
director of the Middle East and North Africa division, Lois Whitman, director
of the children’s rights division, and Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor,
reviewed the report. This report was prepared for production by Vikram Shah,
associate in the emergencies division; Grace Choi, publications director; Anna
Lopriore, creative manager; and Fitzroy Hepkins, production manager. Amr Khairy
coordinated Arabic translation and provided production assistance.

We are grateful to the individuals who shared their personal
stories, as well as activists who agreed to be interviewed, despite concern
that they might face repercussions from the authorities.

[5]
“Death of 10 security forces and citizens in attacks by armed members on
residents of Latakia, and killing of two of the attackers,” SANA, March
27, 2011, http://www.sana.sy/ara/2/2011/03/27/338721.htm (accessed on May
28, 2011).

[30]
See Prosecutor v. Blaskic, ICTY, Case No. IT-95-14-T, Judgement (Trial
Chamber), March 3, 2000, para. 257. Blaskic (paras. 258-259) listed
factors from which could be inferred knowledge of the context: (a) the
historical and political circumstances in which the acts of violence occurred;
(b) the functions of the accused when the crimes were committed; (c) his
responsibilities within the political or military hierarchy; (d) the direct and
indirect relationship between the political and military hierarchy; (e) the
scope and gravity of the acts perpetrated; and (f) the nature of the crimes
committed and the degree to which they are common knowledge.

[33]
Witnesses indicated that most of these wounds, inflicted by sniper fire, were
lethal, suggesting that the snipers were aiming to kill rather than neutralize
or disperse the victims.

[34]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld. The
witness explained that the Arabic equivalent of the term “load and
shoot” (laqqim
wa atleq)is widely understood in the military as an
order to fire at the targets quickly and without hesitation.

[35]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 22, 2011, name and place withheld.

[36]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 23, 2011, name and place withheld. Witnesses
explained that they learnt to distinguish the security forces after they could
match them with marked vehicles, or after interactions with these forces at
checkpoints, during sweep operations, or in detention.

[46]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[47]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[48]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[49]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 22, 2011, name and place withheld.

[50]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 23, 2011, name and place withheld.

[51]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[52]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 22, 2011, name and place withheld.

[53]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[54]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 2, 2011, name and place withheld.

[55]
See for example, “Official Military Source: Mission of Army Units in
Daraa Nears Completion,” SANA, May 4 2011, http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/05/04/344893.htm
(quoting a military source stating that “the remaining armed terrorist
members who terrorized people and left behind panic, destruction and killing in
all neighborhoods were pursued); “Syrian TV Broadcasts Confessions
of Terrorist Group in Daraa,” SANA, May 8, 2011,
http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/05/08/345421.htm (noting that Syrian Television
broadcast confessions of the terrorist group that attacked the military
families' residences in the town of Saida, Daraa, in April, 29th, with the aim
of killing people, stealing weapons and raping women”); “One
Soldier Martyred, Two others Wounded in Daraa,” SANA, May 13, 2011, http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/05/13/346472.htm
(noting that “one soldier was martyred and two others were wounded at the
hands of armed terrorist groups in Daraa”); “Army and Security
Units Continue to Pursue Members of Terrorist Groups in Baniyas and Daraa
Countryside,” SANA, May 8, 2011, http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/05/08/345334.htm
(quoting a military source saying that “Army and security forces' units
continued on Saturday pursuit of members of the terrorist groups in Baniyas and
Daraa countryside to restore security and stability”) (all accessed on
May 29, 2011).

[60]
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials,
adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and
the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August to 7 September 1990, U.N. Doc.
A/CONF.144/28/Rev.1 at 112 (1990), principle 4.

[61]
Ibid., principle 5(a). Principle 9 of the Basic Principles states: “Law
enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in
self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or
serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime
involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and
resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less
extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. In any event,
intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable
in order to protect life.”

171, entered into force March 23, 1976, acceded to by Syria
on April 21, 1969, arts. 4, 7. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture), G.A.
res. 39/46, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1984), entered into force June 26, 1987, acceded
to by Syria on August 19, 2004.

[87]
Human Rights Watch interviews, May 21 and May 23, 2011, name and place
withheld.

[88]
Human Rights Watch interviews, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[89]
Human Rights Watch interviews, May 21, 2011, name and place withheld.

[90]
Human Rights Watch interviews, May 23, 2011, name and place withheld.

[91]
Convention against Enforced Disappearance, adopted September 23, 2005,
E/CN.4/2005/WG.22/WP.1/Rev.4 (2005), art. 2. The convention
took effect on December 23, 2010. Syria is not yet a party to the
convention. See also United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearances (Declaration against Enforced
Disappearances), adopted December 18, 1992, G.A. res. 47/133, 47 U.N. GAOR
Supp. (No. 49) at 207, U.N. Doc. A/47/49 (1992), preamble.

[92]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 23, 2011, name and place withheld.

[93]
Human Rights Watch interview, May 23, 2011, name and place withheld.

[94]
The footage is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=monI7Twd6U0
(accessed May 29, 2011).